In Restless Silence
by CelloNinjaAngel
Summary: "There's something I must say, something that must be taken care of before I can proceed with the main point of these microchips." The entire flock held their breath, looking at Angel as if she was alive. "If you have received this box, I- Angel- am dead. It's over." Collab with Dancingonmytoes13


**A/N: Great thanks to Dancingonmytoes13 for working together with me to write this.  
**

**Disclaimer: I'll start with the boring disclaimer. JP owns MR.**

MAX POV

Normally, silence in the flock would be greatly appreciated, as the flock leader. Normally, they were the most rambunctious, troublemaking, and not to mention _messy _group of avian kids I had ever known.

And I loved every single one of them.

It had been this way for the last couple weeks, ever since Angel left.

No, left wasn't the right word.

_Sacrificed_was more like it.

Before my mind could float away into depressing-over-my-poor-baby-Angel-who-was-sacrificed-to-the-School-because-of- me-mode, the front door clicked open for the first time since the day Angel left, desperately trying to hide her tears, and never came back.

"Mom?" I whispered, after a few moments of complete silence.

She simply nodded, and sat down in her own chair, dark circles under her red, puffy eyes. There was the heavy, tense, silence again. Everyone looked at each other, as if they were daring somebody to speak up first.

Finally, all eyes fixed upon Mom's. She lowered her eyes, subtly refusing to speak.

Then the eyes traveled to me, their flock leader, who just happened to be a complete emotional wreck.

I cleared my throat quietly, "Mom, what happened?" I rasped barely audibly

She sat there silently for a few heartbeats; then, she realized that it wasn't worth staying quiet anymore. She finally spoke, "I wish I could put it another way," she whispered, and even me, who was sitting right next to her, had to strain to hear, "I really do wish. Angel is… Angel…"

"Don't say it!" Gazzy howled like a lone wolf, tears streaming down his face, "Don't say it! Don't tell me what happened to my sister! I won't believe it! It can't be true!"

That did it. The rest of the flock, every single one of them (Total included) burst into tears and moans of pure grief.

I felt like somebody had torn out my wing _and_my heart. It hurt too much. All of us had known she was dead, deep down. We just knew. But hearing it straight from my mom… It just hurt one hundred times more than it already did.

For the rest of the night, we just stayed in the living room, crying and holding on to each other, because that was all we had left.

0o0o0

By morning, every one of us had no more tears or strength left in our bodies. We just stared off into space, completely numb from head to toe. Eventually, Iggy stiffly stood up and robotically made us breakfast. Of course, being Iggy's cooking, it tasted amazing, as usual, but the food tasted tasteless in my mouth. Everything was done mechanically. We talked in only one word sentences, two at most, and the morning seemed to move in slow motion.

At last, when the silence was at its high peak, when breakfast was cleaned up and the flock was sitting in the living room, my mom pulled out a fairly large box.

"What's that?" Nudge asked quietly, "Is that for us?"

My mom only nodded, and handed the box to me, "I found it in the back of my car."

I slowly opened it, almost afraid of what it contained. When I saw what was in it, I gasped. It contained a few microchips, which supposedly had some kind of video on it. At the bottom of the box, there was a special mini TV, which had a slot that fit the chips perfectly. Below that was a small note that had two words written on it.

Two words that broke my heart.

_Love,_

_Angel._

It was signed with Angel's beautiful and unique signature, perhaps the last she had ever signed. Pain clenched my heart all over again, and I faced my mom, rage plastered all over my face.

"Is this some kind of stupid joke?" I choked out, clenching my teeth together, "This is your fault! If you hadn't worked with the scientists, Angel would be here, happy, smiling, and _alive!_"

I didn't know where my rage was coming from, but it was nice to not feel the deep-rooted agony for a moment.

"I'm sorry, Max," she whispered quietly, "I really am… I didn't know what it was until I gave it to you."

I just stared at her, not trusting myself to speak.

"Just listen to it," my mom begged, "Do it for Angel, if not for anyone else."

The flock could easily see that I wanted to slam the box on the ground, smashing it to pieces. Fang laid a hand on my shoulder.

"Please," my mom choked out, tears in her brown eyes, "please."

In the end, I silently relented. Gazzy pulled out the microchip that said, "Chip 1" on it, and I slid it into the machine.

Immediately afterwards, Angel's face popped on the screen, perfect, cute- _my baby_. There was a pure light of terror in her eyes that she was desperately trying to hide, but she was losing the battle. She was in a familiar dog crate, one that the flock had been in countless times.

"Angel…" Gazzy whispered, tears pooling in his blue eyes that were the same as Angel's, "Why did you have to do this to us?"

"It is currently midnight here." Despite her obviously weak condition, Angel's voice was steady and loud. "All the whitecoats are gone, at home, obviously. I'm recording this secretly so an ally can send it to you- I mean, the Flock that I love," she paused, then continued, "There's something I must say, something that must be taken care of before I can proceed with the main point of these microchips." The entire flock held their breath, looking at Angel as if she was alive. "If you have received this box, I- Angel- am dead. It's over."

Her voice cracked slightly as she spoke the next line. "This will be the last time you will hear my voice, see my face- again."

I immediately paused the video, burying my face in my hands. Tears blurred my vision yet once again, and no matter how desperately I tried to hold the salty tears in my eyes, they slid down my cheeks, accompanied by my rather loud and pathetic sobs.

Fang rubbed my back as I cried, like old times, except this time, he was crying as well. In fact, the entire flock was crying again, and somehow still had the tears left to do so.

It seemed almost like a habit now, crying over Angel. None of us tried to hide, or stop, the tears anymore. There was no point. If any of the few human friends that we knew saw us now, they wouldn't recognize the emotional wreck of a flock.

Fang was the first to recover, "Even if… we cry while watching it, we still have to watch the video. For Angel."

I nodded weakly, "For Angel," I echoed, barely holding back the wave of tears that threatened to spill out.

This time, Fang was the one to press play with shaking hands. The frozen picture of Angel unfroze promptly, and she wasn't saying anything, just shaking, her eyes wide. I knew she was trying to hide tears, like she always did.

After a few long seconds, Angel struggled to regain her composure, and in the end, because she was _Angel,_she succeeded, and began to speak again. "I know that Max probably paused it after I told you that I was dead. However, I didn't make this for you to cry. I'm making this for another reason entirely, a reason you'll probably find so unlike me," suddenly, her voice rose an octave and a few notches, "You don't know what they did to me!" tears streamed down her pale face, "You don't know! They did the worst… this was the worst they ever thought of. It's so inhumane. We always thought whitecoats were cruel, but what they did to me this time… it was so cruel… so monstrous."

Her voice had faded at the end to a whisper, and her blue eyes tried to unsuccessfully blink away tears. I wanted to reach out into the screen and hug her tightly and never let go.

Gazzy was shaking, holding on to Iggy and Nudge tightly, while they did the same, trying not to wail or cry out in grief. Total wailed again, sobbing uncontrollably. When I saw that, I could feel tears welling up in my own eyes. My poor flock. My poor, brave flock. Without Angel, it felt like we had been shattered, then stomped on by some invisible force.

Fang silently squeezed my shoulder, then hugged me tightly, comfortingly.

"Angel was the one who rescued me!" Total cried out unnecessarily, "She was my true owner, if I had an owner!"

Angel in the screen just stared at the camera, her eyes suddenly vacant and empty. Her arms hung limply at her side, and her normally pure, bright, white wings drooped.

Finally, she began to speak again. "I loved you all. Iggy, for seeing so much when you couldn't see anything, and for being the best cook in the world. Nudge for teaching me so much about fashion and being a motormouth at the best times. Gazzy for being the best brother I could have asked for, and always blowing up our enemies with Iggy. Fang… Fang for being the older brother, the quiet, silent one, Max's right wing man." her voice turned into a whisper at this point again, "I never told you that, for all the bad things I said about you."

When he heard that, Fang squeezed my hand so hard I thought all the bones in it would break.

"And last but not least," Angel continued, "Max, for being the best leader in the world, even better than me. You were like my mom, sister, and teacher all rolled up into one."

To my horror, I felt more tears spilling down my cheeks.

"You were the better than I could ever be. That's why I left, Max. I couldn't let you leave instead of me, let the flock leader get sacrificed. Please don't be angry at yourself."

I wanted so badly to stop the video right now, throw all the microchips on the ground, stomp on them, and shatter them to pieces. Like I wanted to do with the memory of Angel's death. I wanted Angel to come back, happy, her bright face in a smile brighter than sunshine, her wings radiant and pure white.

Fang laid a gentle hand on my shaking shoulder. I clenched my hands into fists, trying not to pummel the box, the last gift from Angel. The anger slowly subsided into misery, and I simply stared numbly at the screen.

"When their precious specimen," she spat the last word, "came crawling to them willingly, the stupid whitecoats became cocky, too cocky for their own good," Angel finished, stared straight into the cameras, her gaze almost boring holes through the lenses. There was a dramatic silence, until Angel finally spoke again, "I'm Angel, your baby, Max. I know that I was always the angelic, peace-loving one. But now, that all changed. I can't be the peacekeeper after what they did to me," her eyes suddenly turned into sky blue steel, "The tests they conducted on me… they were so terrible I can't even talk about it."

I shook with rage, wanting to destroy each and every one of those whitecoats, making their deaths long and torturous. I wanted to shatter them, limb by limb, organ by organ. I only saw red, and blood roared in my ears.

"Max, you have to save those children in there! The tests conducted on them were worse than the tests conducted on me." Tears filled up in her eyes again. "They're worse off than I was. At least I'm not here anymore. Max, this is my last wish. Please listen to these tapes, find out why and how I died. Finally, save them. Save the children at the School. These are my last wishes, please respect them. I love you, and I always will, whether I'm in hell or heaven."

The last image we saw was one of Angel, her eyes wide and innocent, filling up with tears at the conviction of her words.

I looked around at my flock, and they all nodded in silent agreement.

It was time to get revenge on the whitecoats that did this to her. We would save her memory, like last time, even if this time, there was only a cold body or black ashes to save.


End file.
